Thread: obama's Rodomontade

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/wo...ates.html?_r=1

Gates Expects New Sanctions on Iran

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates spoke to soldiers in Kirkuk, Iraq, on Friday.

Published: December 11, 2009

ERBIL, Iraq — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday that he expected the United States and its allies to impose more stringent sanctions against Iran, which has been increasingly defiant in recent weeks of the West’s demands to limit its nuclear program.

“I think you’re going to see some significant additional sanctions imposed by the international community, assuming that the Iranians don’t change course and agree to do the things that they signed up to do at the beginning of October,” Mr. Gates said during a question-and-answer session with American troops in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad.

In October, Iran reached a preliminary agreement that it would temporarily send much of its nuclear fuel abroad, but it has since backed off. Iran also not only rejected demands by the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency to immediately freeze operations at a once secret uranium enrichment plant, but also said it would build more plants.

Under a deadline imposed by President Obama, Iran has until the end of this year to show progress in engaging with the West to limit its nuclear ambitions, before the United States will seek new sanctions. Mr. Gates’s comments were among the first from a senior member of the Obama administration to say that tougher sanctions were now likely.

Despite the seemingly promising outcome of the talks in October, Mr. Obama struck a careful tone at the time and warned Iran that he was ready to move quickly to more stringent sanctions if it did not do as it said it would. Mr. Gates’s comments on Friday appeared to be an update to tell Tehran that time had essentially run out.

It remains unclear if the United States will be able to convince other countries to go along with punishing measures. Russia and China have long been reluctant to do so, but the Obama administration has been hopeful that Iran’s recent intransigence would convince Moscow and Beijing to take a harsher stance.

Iran contends that its nuclear program is for peaceful energy generation, but many countries in the West doubt that.

Mr. Gates, as he has before, discounted the idea of a military strike against Iran. “You never take any options off the table, but the reality is that any military action would only buy some time, maybe two or three years,” he said.

The defense secretary also spoke about America’s involvement in Iraq, saying that the administration expects that some United States forces might remain in an advisory capacity in Iraq after 2011, the deadline for all American troops to withdraw from the country. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see agreements between ourselves and the Iraqis that continue a ‘train, equip and advise’ role beyond the end of 2011,” Mr. Gates said.

He added, “I suspect as we get on through 2010 and begin approaching 2011, the Iraqis themselves will probably have an interest in this.”

Mr. Gates later went to Erbil, the capital of the semiautonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, to meet with Massoud Barzani, the regional government president, ahead of elections scheduled for March. Defense officials said that Mr. Gates urged Mr. Barzani to move forward and settle differences with the government of Iraq over oil rights and political boundaries, particularly near the contested city of Kirkuk.

“This is perhaps the most worrisome issue here in Iraq as far as we’re concerned,” Mr. Gates told the troops. Nonetheless, he cited progress in recent months between the Kurds and the central government.

Mr. Gates told Mr. Barzani that “we will not abandon you” and that the United States remained committed to Iraqi Kurdistan’s autonomy within a unified Iraq, according to defense officials.

Earlier on Friday, Mr. Gates met in Baghdad with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

The officials said that Mr. Gates had told Mr. Maliki that Iraq needed to move quickly to form a unified government after the March elections, and that the country should not have a repeat of 2005, when it took five months to form a central government after the elections that year.

this is an old topic you want to discuss, but I am finding the articles that I can on it, I am posting the more updated ones.

that's all........!!

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

Dude - that is beyond rude. You are not in Persia here...

I don't understand your mean, please silent !!!!!!
also
I will report your post to moderator ( ahippiechic) as a Law breakers

I say again , I only post news article in " news and information" forum , which part of this is against site law ?but your friends start to debade!
oh my god It's 3:30 after midnight .i should go to bed .